THE  BOARDMAN  LECTURESHIP  IN  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS 


A  Modern  Study 
of  Conscience 


BY 


The  Rev.  OLIVER  HUCKEL,   S.T.B.  (Boston), 

Sometime  Graduate  Student  at  Berlin  and  Oxford. 

Pastor    of   the    Associate   Congregational  Church, 

Baltimore. 


UN'VERSfT 


PHILADELPHIA 

Published  for  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
1907 


H 


(?* 


Copyright,  1907 

by 
Oliver  Huckel 


HISTORY  OF  THE  FOUNDATION. 


O— ^  N  June  6,  1899,  the  Trustees  of  the  Uni- 
_-  versity  of  Pennsylvania  accepted  from 
llMy  the  Rev.  George  Dana  Boardman,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  and  wife,  a  Deed  of  Gift,  providing  for  a 
foundation  to  be  known  as  "The  Boardman  Lec- 
tureship in  Christian  Ethics,"  the  income  of  the 
fund  to  be  expended  solely  for  the  purposes  of  the 
Trust.  After  provision  for  refunding  out  of  the 
said  income,  any  depreciation  which  might  occur 
in  the  capital  sum,  the  remainder  is  to  be  ex- 
pended in  procuring  the  delivery  in  each  year 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  of  one  or  more 
lectures  on  Christian  Ethics  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  life,  example  and  teachings  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  publication,  in  book  form, 
of  the  said  lecture  or  lectures  within  four  months 
of  the  completion  of  their  delivery.  The  volume 
in  which  they  are  printed  shall  always  have  in  its 
forefront  a  printed  statement  of  the  history  and 
terms  of  the  Foundation. 


iv  History  of  the-  Foundation 

On  July  6,  1899,  a  Standing  Committee  on 
"The  Boardman  Lectureship  in  Christian  Ethics" 
was  constituted,  to  which  shall  be  committed  the 
nominations  of  the  lecturers  and  the  publications 
of  the  lectures  in  accordance  with  the  Trust. 

On  February  6,  1900,  on  recommendation  of 
this  committee,  the  Rev.  George  Dana  Board- 
man,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  was  appointed  Lecturer  on 
Christian  Ethics  on  the  Boardman  Foundation, 
for  the  current  year.  And  on  November  18, 
1900,  Dr.  Boardman  delivered  the  inaugural  lec- 
ture on  "The  Golden  Rule." 

On  December  12,  1905,  on  recommendation  of 
the  Boardman  Lectureship  Committee,  the  Rev. 
Oliver  Huckel,  S.  T.  B.  (Boston),  graduate 
of  this  University,  Class  of  '87,  and  also  graduate 
student  of  Berlin  and  Oxford,  wras  appointed  Lec- 
turer on  Christian  Ethics  on  the  Boardman  Foun- 
dation. And  on  March  20,  1906,  Dr.  Huckel 
delivered  a  lecture  on  "A  Modern  Study  of  Con- 
science." 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introduction    \ i 

Differences  in  characterization.  The  fact  of  the 
moral  sense.  Popular  usage.  The  essential 
definition. 

PART    I. 

The  Origin  and  Nature  of  Conscience 7 

Ancient  and  medieval  views.  Usual  modern 
views.  Intuitionalists  and  evolutionists.  The 
new  prophetic  view.  Biologic  and  psycho- 
logic confirmation. 

PART  II. 
The    Education    and    Enlightenment    of    Con- 
science      28 

Hereditary  instinct.  Parents  and  teachers. 
Consensus  of  public  opinion.  The  power  of 
the  law.  The  divine  commandments.  Spe- 
cialized conscience. 

PART    III. 
The  Basis  of  the  Supremacy  of  Conscience  and 

the  Measure  of  its  Authority  33 

The  hereditary  experience  of  the  race.  The 
transcendent  sanction  of  the  divine.  Moral 
nihilism,  moral  insanity,  moral  disintegra- 
tion. Corporate  irresponsibility.  The  func- 
tion of  science  and  education  in  maintaining 
conscience.  The  work  of  the  church.  The 
individual  need.  The  supreme  vision. 
Motes    47 


A  MODERN  STUDY  OF  CONSCIENCE. 


A  MODERN  STUDY  OF  CONSCIENCE. 


j  ADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  The  invitation 
J|^  of  the  Trustees  of  this  University  to  lecture 
on  the  George  Dana  Boardman  Foundation 
in  Christian  Ethics  came  to  me  not  only  as  an 
honor  and  privilege  which  I  deeply  appreciate,  but  also 
as  a  sort  of  inner  challenge  to  my  own  soul  to  bring  to 
expression  some  new  thoughts  in  ethical  lines  that  had 
long  been  maturing.  Historic  events  are  often  followed 
by  a  fuller  study  of  their  causes  and  significance.  In  this 
city  of  Philadelphia,  which  has  witnessed  in  recent  days 
such  a  notable  reawakening  of  conscience,  it  may  not  be 
inappropriate  or  untimely  to  study  in  a  modern  way 
what  it  is  that  has  thus  been  reawakened  to  quickened 
power  and  renewed  authority.  It  was  also  a  gratifica- 
tion for  me  to  learn  after  the  subject  of  this  lecture  had 
been  announced  that  the  theme  chosen  was  one  i?.  which 
the  distinguished  founder  of  this  Lectureship  was  deeply 
interested  and  for  which  he  had  partly  planned  an  ex- 
position. It  is  exceedingly  pleasant  to  feel  that  in  some 
measure  therefore  this  present  discussion  in  Chris- 
tian ethics,  which  I  have  called  "A  Modern  Study  of 
Conscience,"  will  follow  along  his  own  hoped-for  lines. 


HERE  is  a  fine  phrase  of  Coleridge  that 
"the  conscience  bears  the  same  relation 
to  God  as  an  accurate  timepiece  bears 
to  the  sun,"1  Richard  Hooker,  in  his  famous  Ec- 


2  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

clesiastical  Polity  calls  it  "the  voice  of  the  origi- 
nal reason  which  is  laid  up  in  the  bosom  of 
God."  Sophocles  spoke  of  it,  in  the  Antigone, 
as  something  whose  utterances  "are  not  of  to- 
day, nor  of  yesterday,  and  no  man  can  tell  whence 
they  came."  Noble  old  Dr.  Martineau  some- 
where says:  "I  feel  that  in  the  life  of  conscience 
there  is  a  real  communion  between  the  human 
and  the  divine  spirit." 

Most  suggestive  and,  in  a  deep  sense,  true  are 
these  characterizations,  but  a  modern  study  needs 
some  closer  definition.  Many  ethical  thinkers 
of  to-day  define  conscience  as  the  entire  moral 
constitution  or  nature  of  man.  Some  hold  that 
this  moral  nature  is  a  separate  faculty  in  man. 
Thus  Dr.  Thomas  Reid  defines  it  as  "an  original 
power  of  the  mind,  a  moral  faculty,  by  which  we 
have  the  conceptions  of  right  and  wrong  in 
human  conduct,  and  the  dictates  of  which  form 
the  first  principles  of  morals."  Others  hold  that 
conscience  apprehends  the  distinctions  of  right 
and  wrong,  but  only  applies  them  personally. 
Thus  President  Mark  Hopkins  says:  "We  may 
define  conscience  to  be  the  whole  moral   con- 


A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience  3 

sciousness  of  a  man  in  view  of  his  own  actions  as 
related  to  moral  law."2  Others  hold  that  "con- 
science should  not  be  used  as  an  appellation  for  a 
separate  or  special  moral  faculty,  for  the  reason 
that  there  is  no  such  faculty.,,  This  was  President 
Noah  Porter's  view.  "The  same  intellect,"  he 
contends,  "so  far  as  it  knows  itself,  acts  with 
respect  to  moral  relations  under  the  same  laws, 
and  by  the  same  methods  of  comparison,  deduc- 
tion, and  inference,  as  when  it  is  concerned 
with  other  material."  Some,  like  the  German 
Rothe,  in  his  last  revision  of  his  ethics,  refuse 
to  define  conscience  at  all,  and  are  inclined  to 
say  that  the  word  is  scientifically  inadmissible 
because  its  contents  have  been  so  variously  ac- 
counted. 

In  spite  of  these  differences  of  definition,  it 
is  manifest,  as  Bishop  Butler  asserts,  that  "a 
great  part  of  common  language  and  of  common 
behavior  over  the  world  is  formed  upon  sup- 
position of  such  a  moral  faculty,  whether  called 
conscience,  moral  reason,  moral  sense,  or  divine 
reason;  whether  considered  as  a  perception  of 


4  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

the  understanding,  or  a  sentiment  of  the  heart,  or, 
which  seems  the  truth,  as  including  both."3 

We  will  therefore  conclude  to  hold  in  this  dis- 
cussion to  something  of  this  general  assumption — 
that  there  is  a  moral  sense,  a  divine  reason,  in 
the  soul  of  man,  and  that  it  can  be  scientifically 
studied  and  defined.  The  difficulty  of  definition, 
however,  is  a  real  one.  Popular  usage  adds  still 
greater  confusion.  The  ordinary  meanings  of 
the  word  conscience  are  so  diverse  and  ambigu- 
ous. At  various  times  it  may  mean  either  source 
of  moral  obligation,  or  standard  of  moral  judg- 
ment, or  discerner  of  moral  law,  or  enforcer  of 
moral  law.  In  ethics,  however,  we  may  recog- 
nize two  definitions  as  uppermost.  Conscience  is, 
first  of  all,  those  subjective  functions  of  the  mind 
which  go  under  the  designation  of  the  moral 
sense,  but  also,  secondly,  the  objective  results  of 
the  moral  judgments, — or  the  sum  of  the  ac- 
knowledged rules  of  duty,  that  is,  the  moral  code 
or  standard  for  an  individual  or  a  community. 
This  is  often  spoken  of  as  a  man's  conscience,  or 
the  public  conscience — an  objective  and  collective 


A  Modem  Study  of  Conscience  5 

conception  to  which  the  individual  or  community 
ought  to  measure  up.4 

But  in  our  thought  of  conscience  in  this  pres- 
ent discussion  we  shall  continue  to  hold  as  far 
as  possible  to  the  first  and  essential  definition 
of  conscience,  that  is,  the  moral  reason  or  fulL 
consciousness  of  a  man  in  the  deepest  and  most 
vital  relations  of  life.  For  we  not  only  surely 
recognize  individual  conscience  as  the  judge  of 
life,  the  source  of  duty,  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
noblest  human  living  and  service,  but  also  we 
recognize  a  church  conscience  which  we  call  the 
consensus  which  is  the  spirit  of  the  church  under 
the  tuition  of  that  Spirit  which  shall  lead  us  into 
all  truth;  and  a  civic  conscience,  which  is  the 
city  or  state  feeling  out  after  nobler  and  higher 
things;  and  a  social  conscience  which  is  a  con- 
sciousness of  God's  love  in  human  society ;  and 
a  national  conscience  which  is  the  consciousness 
of  God  in  the  leadership  of  the  nation  in  that 
righteousness  which  alone  exalteth  it;  and  we 
are  beginning  to  discern,  as  Maurice  Maeterlinck 
and  others  do,  a  conscience  or  consciousness  of 
God  in  all  humanity,  in  the  whole  race,  in  the 


6  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

higher  instincts  and  aspirations  that  the  race  is 
developing ;  and  also  what  Dr.  Richard  M.  Bucke 
calls  "a  cosmic  consciousness"  which  enters  into 
sympathy  with  the  life  of  God  in  all  His  universe 
and  in  a  sense  becomes  in  tune  with  the  Infinite. 
It  will  be  our  purpose  to-day  to  look  into  the 
origin  and  nature  of  conscience,  then  to  look  at  its 
means  of  education  and  enlightenment,  and  finally 
to  consider  the  grounds  for  the  present  and  per- 
petual authority  of  conscience.  It  is  a  large  task 
that  we  have  undertaken  for  one  lecture- — to  at- 
tempt to  dissolve  some  of  the  current  ambigui- 
ties and  to  endeavor  to  get  a  clear  conception  of 
the  meaning  of  conscience.  We  must  be  content 
to  condense  much,  and  to  lay  the  emphasis  on  a 
few  chief  thoughts. 


I. 

THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE. 


HALL  we  consider,  first  of  all,  what  may 
be  the  origin  and  nature  of  conscience? 
It  is  an  intricate  discussion,  with  a  long 
history.  But  we  can  make  it,  I  think,  reasonably 
brief,  and  yet  indicate  the  significant  features. 

Many  of  the  ancients  seemed  to  think  con- 
science a  special  instinct,  faculty  or  being  within 
*he  soul.  The  daemon  of  Socrates  to  which  both 
Plato  and  Xenophon  bear  witness  seemed  a  "di- 
vine sign,"  or  as  Plato  called  it  "a  warning  voice" 
to  which  Socrates  was  always  obedient.5  But 
in  these  modern  days  the  theory  of  conscience  as 
a  special  faculty  in  the  soul  has  almost  entirely 
gone  by. 

It  might  be  exceedingly  interesting,  if  we  had 
the  time,  to  sketch  something  of  the  ancient  and 
medieval  studies  of  conscience.  Greek  philosophy 
in  the  ethics  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  was  largely 

7 


8  A  Modem  Study  of  Conscience 

concerned  with  the  highest  good,  the  summum 
bonum.  It  was  emphatically  objective.  The  later 
philosophy  became  intensely  subjective,  as  in  the 
systems  of  the  Roman  Empire,  when  the  problem 
of  the  source  of  moral  obligation  became  upper- 
most. The  Stoics  found  the  rule  in  reason;  the 
Epicureans  in  sense.6 

The  early  Christian  ages,  and  medieval  scho- 
lasticism gave  little  light  to  the  problems.  The 
Renaissance  began  a  new  era.  The  Reformation 
was  a  liberating  movement,  and  discussion  of 
conscience  was  again  taken  up.  Descartes  and 
Spinoza  express  in  the  domain  of  pure  thought 
the  new  philosophic  spirit.  British  moralists  were 
strong  in  the  movement.  Among  the  first  great 
thinkers  in  ethical  doctrine  was  Hobbes.  With 
him  "the  moral  faculty  or  conscience  is  nothing 
but  reason,  calculating  how  best  to  secure  indi- 
vidual advantage,  and  deciding  upon  submission 
to  the  State  as  the  best  means  of  securing  the  end 
aimed  at."  This  rather  low -theory  of  conscience 
provoked  many  answers  in  the  subsequent  ethical 
thought  of  England.  Cudworth,  for  instance, 
in  his  treatise  concerning  Eternal  and  Immutable 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  9 

Morality,  contended  that  man  is  not  a  creature  of 
selfish  instincts  with  morality  based  on  conven- 
tions, but  that  he  has  the  power  of  recognizing 
by  reason  the  essential  distinctions  of  good  and 
evil,  and  his  morality  is  based  on  eternal  fact. 
Shaftesbury,  a  little  later,  contended  that  man 
possessed  social  as  well  as  selfish  instincts.  Vir- 
tue is  the  balance  of  the  two.  The  perfection 
or  power  of  balance  is  due  to  a  moral  sense. 
These  views  are  some  advance  over  the  psycho- 
logical and  ethical  principles  of  Hobbes.  Bishop 
Butler  came  and  labored  to  establish  the  suprem- 
acy of  this  moral  sense,  and  to  make  it  the  arbiter 
and  authority  in  morals.  But  Bishop  Butler, 
however  valuable  and  tonic  his  work,  was  "a  vic- 
tim of  the  current  psychology"  of  his  day,  and 
his  doctrine  of  conscience  is  not  at  all  final,  and 
cannot  be  a  basis  for  ethics.  Paley,  Bentham, 
James  Mill,  John  Stuart  Mill,  Hume,  Bain,  with 
their  varied  differences,  all  followed  this  same 
sensationalist  psychology  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Immanuel  Kant,  with  a  reply  to  Hume's 
skepticism,  introduced  a  new  conception  of  man 
and  the  spiritual  world,  placing  the  emphasis  on 


io  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

what  he  called  "the  categorical  imperative,"  the 
inherent  demand  of  the  soul.  Dr.  Martlheau  con- 
tended with  fuller  emphasis  along  the  lines  of 
Bishop  Butler  in  the  previous  century.  He  de- 
fined conscience  to  be  "the  critical  perception  we 
have  of  the  relative  authority  of  our  several  prin- 
ciples of  action."  He  defined  right  and  wrong 
thus:  "Every  action  is  right  which,  in  presence 
of  a  lower  principle,  follows  a  higher;  every 
action  is  wrong  which  in  presence  of  a  higher 
principles,  follows  a  lower."  In  both  Butler  and 
Martineau,  however,  conscience  is  unexplained 
and  inexplicable.  It  is  a  unique,  separate  and 
mysterious  faculty  with  no  organic  relation  to 
self-consciousness  and  with  a  blind  authority.  It 
is  a  God-given  and  infallible  dictator  in  moral- 
things;  a  splendid  tyrant  sitting  within  the  soul, 
as  sovereign  in  the  life. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  a  modern  study  of  con- 
science may  be  said  to  take  up  the  problem  and 
to  bring  it  into  new  light.  This  may  be  consid- 
ered the  modern  view,  as  now  generally  held: 
Conscience  has  two  elements — moral  judgment 
and  moral  obligation.    As  to  ju<Igment,  it  is  prob- 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  n 

/ 


able  that  reason  arts  in  conscience  as  it  acts  in 
any  other  matter.  And  therefore  the  judgments 
of  conscience  are  fallible;  but  as  to  obligation, 
there  is  something  unique.  We  recognize  that 
an  ordinary  judgment  of  reason  may  or  may  not 
involved bligation,  but  a  moral  judgment  does  in- 
volve~obligation.  There  is  a  sense  of  the  ought 
which  is  manifest  and  unmistakable. 

Now  this  fact  of  the  sense  of  moral  obliga- 
tion, the  sense  of  the  ought,  is  a  manifest  reality 
and  must  be  accounted  for.  The  question  is, 
vhether  this  norm,  this  sense  of  obligation  is 
native  or  acquired?  The  intuitionalists  would 
say  that  it  is  native;  the  evolutionists,  that  it 
is  acquired.  The  truest  view  would  probably 
be  a  reconciliation  of  these  views,  for  in  a  cer- 
tain way  this  sense  of  obligation  is  both  native 
and  acquired! 

Many  of  the  intuitionalists  would  not,  however, 
agree  to  reconciliation,  for  they  would  not  accept 
the  cosmic  theory  of  the  evolutionists,  although  it 
may  giyea  very  full  and  noble  view  of  life.  The 
int^itionalis^  would  hold  that  the  successive 
epochT^ot  life,  consciousness,  morality  in  map 


/ 


/ 


12  A  Modem  Study  of  Conscience 

were  implanted  ab  extra  at  certain  stggr?  nf  lifp^ 
or  in  the  individual  man.  The  erolutionj^  how- 
ever, has  place  injiifYerent  epnrhs  for  the  evolv- 
ing  of  new  things — such  as  life  and,  again,  con- 
sciousness and  again  morality — which  have  not 
appeared  before.  They  are  new  things  in  the  ful- 
ness of  time,  and  yet  were  all  in  the  original  plan. 
The  evolutj^onist.holjjs_tbat  the  whole  universe  is 
not  a  creation  with  a  series  of  gaps  to  be  filled- 
up  (as  Dr.  Martineau  so  vigorously  contended  in 
his  "Theories  of  Ethical  Development") — suc- 
cessive patchings  by  the  original  artificer.  His 
whole  plan  is  formed  in  the  beginning,  and  new 
features  appear  from  time  to  time  which  were  not 
visible  or  in  use  before,  but  they  were  all  in  the 
original  plan.  So  that,  for  instance,  when  man 
reaches  a  sufficient  ripeness  in  development  the 
sense  of  oughtness  appears.  This  sense  is  not 
thrust  in  ab  extra;  it  appeared  when  the  fulness 
of  time  came.  Its  after  development,  however, 
was~eflected  by  processes  of  education  and  en- 
lightenmenE 

It  is  true  at  the  same  time  that  evolutionists 
as  well  as  intuitionalists  would  recognize  equally 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  13 

**' 

t-bf  authority  of  this  moral  obligation  in  the  indi- 
vidual man.  Such  thorough-going  evolutionists 
as  Herbert  Spencer  and  Leslie  Stephens  readily 
concede  this.  The  only  dispute  now  is  the  unes- 
sential and  speculative  one — where  is  the  historic 
or  prehistoric  origin  of  this  unique  sense  of  obli- 
gation? Is  it  involved  in  the  original  plan,  or 
is  it  something  superadded  to  the  original  plan? 
This  is  the  situation:  All  axiomatic  principle, 
whether  in  mathematics  or  morality,  go  back  to 
prehistoric  origins,  and  become  speculative  prob- 
lems. 

This  is,  in  brief,  the  usual  modern  view  now 
generally  received.  But  there  is  a  further  modern 
view — not  as  yet  generally  received — to  which  I 
would  call  your  attention,  and,  indeed,  upon 
which  I  would  lay  emphasis  as  leading  into  most 
suggestive  and  vital  fields  of  ethical  and  spiritual 
thought.  Some  may  call  it  speculative.  I  would 
call  it  prophetic.  Some  of  you  may  refuse  to  go 
with  it.  Yet  it  has  dignified  authority  for  its  in- 
troduction, and  a  very  respectable  following, 
not  only  among  ethical  thinkers,  but  in  the  latest 
facts  of  biology  and  psychology.  With  a  broader 


14  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

and  deeper  conception  of  mind,  of  knowledge 
and  of  the  universe,  with  a  new  psychology  and  a 
new  world-theory,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  has  been 
made  possible  a  new  conception  of  rPncpi"pn'»pJ 
and  a  deeper  and  broader  and  more  vital  one, 
even  than  the  preceding.  The  new  view  comes 
to  some  minds  almost  like  the  discovery  of  a  new 
world. 

It  was  first  suggested  by  Prof.  Thomas  Hill 
Green,  Fellow  of  Balliol  and  Professor  of  Moral 
Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  in  his 
"Prolegomena  to  Ethics."  This  is  the  substance 
of  it:  "Man  is  a  self  or  personality  7  which  is  not 
merely  an  incident  in  a  series,  but  is  rooted  in  an 
infinite  self  or  personality.  .  .  .  _Our  indi- 
vidual self-consciousness  derives  from  and  is 
maintained  by  an  infinite,  eternal,  universal  ..self- 
consciousxiess.  .  .  .  Knowledge  is  the  grad- 
ual discovery  of  mind  or  spirit  in  thinp-s  that  is. 
the  discovery  in  the  world  of  the  self -manifesta- 
tion of_the  infinite  personality  with  whom_lhe  * 
finitejntelligence  of  man  is  one.  Morality  is  the 
progressive  accomplishment  of  an  eternal  pur- 
pose, with  which  the  individual  is  and  ought  to 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  15 

be  at  one,  whose  goal  is  the  perfection  of  man. 
The  good  for  man  is  self-realization,  but  it  is  the 
realization  of  an  infinite  self,  and  is  thus  identical 
with  the  widest  possible  range  of  good  for  others, 
and  is  attained  by  the  profoundest  self-surrender. 
The  moral  faculty  in  man,  the  practical  reason 
or  conscience,  is  no  special  inexplicable  endow- 
ment, no  vox  clamantis  in  deserto — it  is  the  man 
himself,  conscious  in  all  action  of  a  good  which 
he  either  reaches  or  fails  to  reach.  If  he  reaches 
the  good,  it  approves  and  beckons  him  onward 
and  upward ;  if  he  fails  to  reach  the  good,  it  con- 
demns him  and  binds  on  him  the  penalty  due  to 
one  who  has  broken  the  law  of  his  own  being. 
Conscience,  thus  conceived,  may  also  with  equal 
truth  be  described  as  the  revelation  of  infinite 
good  to  man,  or  the  voice  of  God  witnessing  to 
eternal  right  within  the  individual  soul.  It  is  the  1 
voice  of  the  man's  true  self,  and  his  true  self  is 
ideally  one  with  God."7  Here  is  a  clearer  ground 
for  absolute  right  and  a  more  satisfactory  basis 
for  the  Christian  ethic  of  conscience.8 

See  how   some  of  the  modern   biologic   and 
psychologic  studies  of  man  seem  to  confirm  this 


1 6  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

view.  In  these  modern  days  wpfry  to  study,  the 
origin  of  _conscience  ^long  natural  lines.  Look- 
ing at  it  in  this  way,  conscience  seems  to  be  an  in- 
heritance of  the  race,  gradually  developed .  byJJie. 
growing  intelligence  of  humanity.  In  its  main 
features,  it  is  a  collective  possession,  although  it 
may  widely  differ  in  details  then  and  now  in 
America,  India  and  darkest  Africa.  It  is  a  devel- 
opment of  the  instincJLffl£>mtig.--th-rough  tire  gen- 
erations  that  the  right  is  simply-4faa£-w4tkfris"for  • 
the  good  of  alL—  Conscience  seems  to  be  here  the 
attempt  to  follow  the  right  for  the  good  of  all. 
The  old  utilitarians  have  now  largely  gone  over 
to  the  evolutionists. 

In  the  most  primitive  conditions,  conscience 
was  doubtless  even  m6re~pnm7five  than_that.  It 
was  the  instinct  to  follow  the  right  because  that 
was  simply  what  would  preserve,life^  It  was, 
therefore,  one  development  of  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation.  And  in  its  ultimate  reaches,  it 
is  also  essentially  that.  The  dictates  of  conscience 
on  the  whole  are  in  the  way  that  preserves  life. 
V  The  right  in  the  long  run  is  simply  the  path  of 
x  the   fullest   and   longest   life.     People,   natipns, 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  17 

which  despise  conscience  inevjt^l^^oJeLdgstxuc-^ 
tion.     It  has,  therefore,  in  part  at  least,  adopted 
the  new  category  of  self-realization  as  the  sum- 
mum  bonum  and  ultimate  end  of  Jif£>    Professor 
Zollner  confirms  this  in  these  words :   "The  pain- 
ful feelings  of  shame  or  a  bad  conscience  serve_ 
the  practical  ends  of  nature.    They  are  the  pre- 
ventives,  as  it  were,  which  hinderjis  from  doing 
what  is  injurious  to  ourselves,  just  as  animajsjcaii____ 
distinguish  Jielwjgen. wholesome  and  unwholesome.  __ 
food  by  n^ns  gf_their  more  finely  developed 
nerves  of  taste.     Wherever  an  individual  or__a 
nation  is  deprived  of  the  mstinctiye  feeling  _of 
shame     (or_   conscience)     dissolution     follows." 
(Quoted  by  Paulsen,  p.  365).°    All  chronicles  of 
mankind  proveJt. 
This  in  very  briefest  way,  is  something  of  the 
(/natural  history  of  conscience — the  biologic  and 
"psychologic  history.    But  in  the  final  analysis,  in 
its  philosophic  and  theologic  history  we  see  that 
even  this  natural  history  has  its  divine  origins. 
Conscience  is  not  merely  the  fejgditaxy^wisdom 
of  a  people,  or  of  humanity,  but  back  of  that  is 
something  deeper.    We  do  not  disassociate  God 


18  A  Modem  Study  of  Conscience 

from  His  universe.  All  development  is  the  Un- 
folding nf  Hi>  thnii^ht  anrj  lifer  GoOSdeafigU  IS 
no  exception.  It  finds  its  roots  in  the  divine.  Its 
growing  clearness  and  strength  is  a  revelation 
of  God's  presence. 

We  see,  therefore,  something  of  the  meaning  of 
the  further  differing  definitions  of  conscience  that 
are  often  given.  Conscience,  says  a  naturalist,  is 
a  highly  important  organ  for  preserving  life. 
"A  man's  conscience,"  says  Clifford,  "is  the  voice 
of  his  tribal  self.  The  individual  self  being  subor- 
dinate to  the  tribal  self."  Conscience,  says  an- 
other, is  that  phase  of  our  nature  which  opposes 
inclination  and  manifests  itself  in  the  feeling  of 
obligation  and  duty.  "A  man's  conscience,"  says 
still  another,  Professor  Starke,  "is  a  particular 
kind  of  pleasure  and  pain  felt  in  perceiving  our 
own  conformity  or  non-conformity  to  principles." 

"Conscience,"  says  Prof.  Frederick  Paulsen,  "is 
a  knowledge  of  a  higher  will  by  which  the  indi- 
vidual feels  himself  internally  bound."  Con- 
science, still  another  says,  is  the  voice  of  God. 
"Conscience,"  says  Fichte,  "is  the  rational  and 
universal  principle  of  guidance.    It  is  that  which 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  19 

bids  us  advance  along  the  line  of  rational  develop- 
ment." Trendelenburg  asserts  that  conscience 
is  the  reaction  and  pro-action  of  the  total  God- 
centered  man  against  the  man  as  partial,  espe- 
cially against  the  self-seeking  part  of  himself.10 
Schlegel's  definition  is  interesting:  "Conscience  is 
an  inward  revelation  as  a  warning  voice,  which, 
though  sounding  in  us,  is  not  of  us,  and  makes  it- 
self to  be  felt  as  an  awe  and  fear  of  Deity.  It  is 
in  all  human  bosoms  and  lies  at  the  source  of  all 
morality.  It  first  originates  imperatives  in  con- 
sciousness, and  involves  all  that  is  moral  or  re- 
ligious in  the  human  race."11  There  is  the  recog- 
nition  in  all  these  definitions  of  something  natural, 
inherent,  universal  and  fundamental  in  con- 
science. It  belongs  in  the  order  of  the  deepest 
law  of  life. 


Conscience  and  consciousness  are  very  close 
words,  derived  from  the  same  roots  and  both 
meaning  "the  knowing."  Conscience  and  con- 
scious were  words  in  the  old  days  to  be  used 
for  one  another.  For  instance  Shakespeare 
speaks  of  some  fair  queen  "conscience  of  her 
worth."     The  specialized  uses  of  the  words  in, 


20  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

these  modern  days  may,  however,  signify  for  us 
this :  Conscious  indicates  ordinary  consciousness ; 
conscience  a  consciousness  of  higher  things. 

Let  us  look  at  it  in  this  way.  Man  is  not  an 
independent  being  in  this  world.  He  is  only  a 
part  of_a  greater  being.  In  God  it  is  that  he 
lives^_and  moves  and  has  his  being.  Knowledge 
is  not  a  creation  °f  tie.w  things.  It  is  only  find- 
ing out  what  already  exists.  It  is  only  the  dis- 
covery of  God  in  life  and  nature  and  all  things. 
It  is  tfcue  Ending  of  more  and  more  of  that  infinite 
WnnwIpHge  and  truth  which  is  God.  Affection  is 
not  the  new  creation  of  sentiment  in  our  lives. 
It  is  only  a  coming  into  more  of  God's  nature. 
The  more  we  loye^and  the  more  purely  we  love, 
the  nearer  we  are  to  God.  Lovingis  only  rising 
into  the  life  of  God,  for  God  is  love.  Faith  is  not 
a  separate  faculty  or  function,  nor  even  a  sixth 
sense,  as  some  have  called  it.  Faith  is  just  the 
opening  of  the  heart  to  God.  It  is  the  inner 
eye  opened  to  see  God.  It  is  the  discovery  of 
God.^  Conscience,  in  the  same  way,  may  be  con- 
ceived not  merely  as  a  separate  faculty  of  mind, 
but  as  the  whole  man  rising  into  a  consciousness 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  21 

of  God  in  his  life.  Conscience  is,  as  Professor 
Green  says,  no  lonely  voice  calling  in  the  wilder- 
ness  of  man's  life ;  conscience  is  no  special  inex- 
plicable  endowment;  it  is  the  man  himself,  the 
whole  man,  as  hp  feels  himself  in  the  presence  of 
a  higher  power  which  we  call  God. 

Do  we  not  see  in  man  the  unfoldment  of  his 
life  in  three  great  steps  of  upward  progress? 
First,  instinct,  the  sense-consciousness  which 
makes  known  to  us  the  world  about  us;  which 
guides  us  in  all  the  ordinary  operations  of  our 
physical  life.  We  share  this  same  instinct  with 
the  birds  of  the  air  and  the  beasts  of  the  field. 
Second,  reason,  the  self-consciousness  which 
makes  known  to  us  the  world  within  us;  which 
tells  us  of  ourselves  and  of  the  marvelous  pro- 
cesses of  thought  and  imagination.  This  gift  of 
reason  upraises  man_above  the  beasts  of  the  field. 
And,  third,  coj^ciencg/  the  God-consciousness 
which  makes  known  to  us  the  world  that  is  above 
us  and  beyond  us,  the  invisible  and  eternal  world. 
This  last  is  the  supreme  privilege  of  our  lives , — 
the  privilege  that  links  us  with  the  angels_qfjGod 
and  the  creatures  of  the  heavenly  realm.     This 


22  A  Modem  Study  of  Conscience 

supreme  unfoldment  of  our  lives   lifts   us  into 
communion  with  God. 

.onscience^Jtherefore,  in  its  highest  reaches, 
is  not  merely  a  ''faculty  of  mind."  It  is  that,  but 
more  than  that.  It  is  a  man's  consciousness  of 
.  GnA  Vqu  recognize  that  the  divine  law  of  a, 
man's  own  being  is  self-realization.  He  is  to 
maVg  thp  hpqtjuid  the  most  of  himself.  The  more 
nearly  he  approaches  to  that  ideal  the  more  nearly 
he -approaches  God.  A  man's  true  self  is  thus 
ideally  at  least  one  with  God,  as  Christ  revealed^ 
to  ng — ideally  one,  that  is,  one  in  spirit,  purpose^ 
will. 

Does  this  larger  conception  of  conscience  dig- 
nify it  too  much?  Is  it  easier  for  some  of  us 
to  hold  the  smaller  conception  of  conscience  as  a 
mere  faculty  of  the  mind,  the  moral  instinct,  the 
spiritual  reason?  Is  it  easier  to  deal  with  a  fac- 
ulty than  with  God?  Is  it  easier  to  educate  a 
faculty  than  to  open  the  life  to  God?  It  may  be 
easier  to  deal  with  conscience  in  its  more  primi- 
tive aspects.  It  may  be  easier  to  assume  it  as  a 
faculty  of  the  mind  and  nothing  else.  But  it 
is  the  truth  we  are  after  in  this  matter.     It  is 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  23 

the  naked  truth,  strong,  living,  majestic.  Con- 
science, it  is  true,  begins  as  a  mere  faculty  of 
the  mind,  but  even  then  it  is  the  faculty  of  won- 
derful vision.  For  only  God  places  that  instinct- 
in  our  souls.  And  when  conscience  rises  into 
its  strength  and  fulness,  then  it  is  a  man  living 
in  his  consciousness  of  the  infinite  God  within 
him  and  around  him. 

I  am  not  sure  that  Professor  Green  is  right — 
we  may  treat  this  subject  with  a  very  comfort- 
able lack  of  dogmatism — but  his  view  is  worth 
our  hospitable  consideration  as  the  most  sug- 
gestive and  fruitful  of  modern  expositions.  I 
have  the  feeling  also  that  it  will  be  along  some- 
thing of  these  lines  that  the  larger  studies  of 
conscience  may  yet  proceed.  For  it  leads  into 
touch  with  vital  and  eternal  and  cosmic  issues. 
We  may,  therefore,  do  well  to  hold  it  in  mind, 
and  think  it  through  carefully.  It  seems  worthy 
of  our  attention.  Professor  Green  announced 
these  views,  as  we  said,  in  his  "Prolegomena  to 
Ethics,"  the  last  work  before  his  death,  in  1882, 
and  left  unfinished.  He  was  a  radical-wing  He- 
gelian, with  philosophic  antecedents  also  in  Spi- 


24  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

noza.  He  may  not  be  an  altogether  safe  guide, 
scarcely  more  so  in  philosophy  and  ethics  than 
Prof.  Ernst  Haeckel  in  science,  and  yet  he  is  most 
interesting — even  fascinating — and  most  sugges- 
tive. Perhaps  the  fascination  of  his  spell  may 
wear  off,  as  it  did  with  Prof.  John  Dewey,  who 
was  formerly  an  ardent  disciple  of  Green.  I  do 
not  know.  His  theories  at  times  come  very  close 
to  a  philosophic  pantheism, — in  his  case  person- 
ally to  a  Christian  pantheism,  if  we  may  use  the 
contradictory  term.  His  views  are  at  times  mys- 
tical, perhaps  vague  and  extravagant.  They 
need  limitation  to  keep  them  sane.  But  these 
limitations  are  possible.  Take  that  second  chap- 
ter in  the  first  book  of  the  "Prolegomena,"  on 
the  relation  of  man,  as  intelligence,  to  the  spir- 
itual principle  in  nature.  Professor  Green  says: 
"Man  becomes  the  vehicle  of  the  eternally  com- 
plete consciousness."  It  is  easily  possible  to  pre- 
serve personality  by  saying  man  reflects  or  be- 
comes conscious  of  the  eternal  complete  con- 
sciousness. Surely,  in  spiritualized  ethics,  his 
views  may  come  very  close  to  Christian  experi- 
ence.13 


The  Nature  of  Conscience  25 

Perhaps  this  view,  after  all,  is  also  not  so  new 
as  we  may  imagine.  It  may  be  only  a  change  of 
emphasis.  It  may  be  only  a  difference  in  nomen- 
clature and  terminology.  For  some  germs  of  this 
latest  view,  some  intimations  now  and  then  may 
be  found  in  many  of  the  older  ethical  teachers. 
I  am  not  sure  but  Plato,  if  we  could  fully  know 
him,  would  be  a  disciple  of  the  latest  conception 
of  conscience.  I  find  frequent  glimpses  in  all 
the  centuries  of  what  has  now  come  out  into  the 
fuller  light  and  stronger  appeal.  Something  of 
the  same  view  seems  to  have  been  held  by  Dr. 
Adolf  Wuttke,  of  Halle,  for  instance.  He  calls 
conscience  "the  revelation  of  the  divine  will  to 
the  moral  subject,  as  given  in  the  rational  con- 
sciousness. ...  It  never  exists  without  a 
God-consciousness — it  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the 
phases  of  this  consciousness.  .  .  .  Conscience 
is  the  germ  proper  of  man's  God-likeness.  .  .  . 
It  is  the  finest  part  of  the  essence  of  rationality. 
.  .  .  What  axioms  are  in  mathematics,  that  is 
conscience  in  the  moral  sphere.  Conscience  is 
the  inner  essence  of  the  divine  image  coming  to 
self-consciousness.,,12     These  words  are  worthy 


26  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

of  fullest  consideration.13  Our  most  modern 
psychologists  now  use  the  significant  expression 
the  "field  of  consciousness"  for  experiences  not 
hitherto  connoted.  Prof.  William  James  gives 
some  attention  to  this  in  his  "Varieties  of  Re- 
ligious Experiences."  This  word  of  his  is  sug- 
gestive :  "Until  quite  lately  the  unit  of  mental  life 
which  figured  most  was  the  single  'idea/  sup- 
posed to  be  a  definitely  outlined  thing.  But  at 
present  psychologists  are  tending,  first,  to  admit 
that  the  actual  unit  is  more  probably  the  total 
mental  state,  the  entire  wave  of  consciousness 
present  to  the  thought  at  any  time;  and,  second, 
to  see  that  it  is  impossible  to  outline  this  wave, 
this  field,  with  any  definiteness."14 

May  we  not  venture,  therefore,  to  hold,  at  least 
tentatively,  that  conscience  is  more^Jiian  the^ 
voice  of  God  in  the  soul — more  than  a  categori- 
cal imperative  of  Kant  which  may  be  something 
apart  from  God.  More  than  a  voice — it  is  the 
divine  presence.  Of  course  we  believe  thai-con- 
science, js  the  clarification  of  the... reason — the-£ea- 
son  Qfjth£_wholej^^ 
on  moral  matters.     But  go  back  of  the  highest 


The  Nature  of  Conscience 


27 


reaseftr-aaa^not  the  progressive  clarification  of 
the  highest  reason  be  the  progressive  entering  into 
thp  consciousness  of  God?  This  is  what  we 
mean:  We  are  embeddedJn^Goi^our^life  and 
all  thaMs  noblestin^^  In 

the  terms  of  pure  intellect  and  of  rational  thought 
we  end  when  we  say  that  conscience  is  the  high- 
est reason,  or  the  clarification  of  reason.  But 
in  the  ethics  of  Jesus  we  go  beyond.  ^e_see  the 
reason ^asJiia_tmos^t  akiruto - -God  and  the  progres- 
sive daj^cation^f^tliS, J.ea^on*.Ji5.  a  —}er Jlnc* 
fuller  entering  into  the  reason  and  the  life  of 
God.  Perhaps  you  will  say  that  this_is  mysticisrn  «. 
rather  than  rationalism.  Perhaps  clear-cut  reason  ) 
here  ends  in  religious  experience.  But  rememberyA 
this  is  not  a  mere  philosophic  discussion.  It  is 
a  study  in  Christian  ethics,  distinctly  and  posi- 
tively based  on  Christian  faith  and  experience. 
And  in  all  this  we  are  getting  into  the  meaning 
of  vital  ethics,  not  merely  as  far  as  cold  reason 
might  lead  us,  but  into  a  further  region  suffused 
with  the  richness  of  the  indwelling  Spirit. 


II. 

THE  ENLIGHTENMENT  OF  CONSCIENCE 


^  |Q  far  we  have  considered  the  origin  and 
2~L     nature  of  conscience.    We  come  now  to 
^^l    a  glance  at  the  means  of  education  and 
enlightenment  of  conscience.15 

We  may  recognize  at  least  five  influences  at 
work  constantly  in  the  education  of  conscience. 
First,  hereditary  instinct.  How  much  or  how  little 
this  may  be  we  cannot  tell,  but  it  is  a  factor.  Dar- 
win in  his  fourth  chapter  of  the  "Descent  of 
Man,"  refers  to  traces  of  conscience — germinal 
conscience — among  animals.  A  good  hunting 
dog,  formerly  always  ready  for  the  chase,  now 
has  a  litter  of  little  ones.  She  sees  her  master 
getting  ready  for  the  chase.  She  looks  at  him, 
hesitates  for  a  moment,  the  maternal  instincts  get 
the  better  and  she  slinks  away  to  her  little  ones. 
Upon  the  return  of  her  master  she  meets  him 
with  all  signs  of  shame  and  contrition  for  having 
forsaken  him.     This  is  conscience  in  the  primitive 


The  Enlightenment  of  Conscience  29 

form.  (Cited  by  Paulsen,  p.  341.)  If  there  is 
such  in  animals,  surely  in  the  natural  man  at  the 
start  there  is  the  hereditary  instinct  of  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  right  and  wrong,  in  their  gen- 
eral aspects. 

A  second  educator  in  conscience  is  the  work  of 
parents  and  teachers  who  impress  the  primary 
facts  of  right  and  wrong  continually  upon  the 
souls  of  the  children.  (See  Paulsen,  pp.  363-364.) 
We  are  trained  into  principles  of  right  conduct 
even  before  we  understand  the  reasons.  We  are 
taught  by  example  and  by  precept.  A  third 
educator  of  conscience  is  the  influence  of  the 
whole  body  of  the  people.  What  people  think, 
what  is  the  custom,  what  everybody  regards  as 
the  right  thing,  has  its  effect  on  our  thoughts 
and  ideals  and  moral  judgments.  There  is  a 
general  sense  of  right  and  wrong  in  the  com- 
munity, a  common  conscience,  that  must  be  con- 
sidered, for  it  is  more  or  less  influential  in  every 
life.  Praise  or  blame,  honor  or  disgrace  are  its 
judgments. 

A  fourth  educator  of  conscience  is  the  influ- 
ence of  the  law  and  the  courts  of  justice.    This 


30  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

is  a  harsh  and  rigorous  educator,  but  powerful. 
It  deters  the  offender  by  threats  and  punish- 
ments. It  manifests  the  will  of  the  community 
and  its  abhorence  of  evil  and  criminal  things.  A 
fifth,  and  final,  educator  of  conscience  are  the 
divine  sanctions  and  commandments  which  sur- 
round social  custom  and  law  with  religious  awe. 
It  was  so  in  ancient  religions — it  is  so  in  Chris- 
tianity. This  is  often  the  most  influential  of 
all.  For  it  looks  not  merely  to  this  life,  but  to 
the  life  to  come.  It  reminds  us  of  the  final  tri- 
bunal, the  great  day  of  judgment.  Religion  also 
gives  us  a  body  of  revelation  with  its  external 
code  for  the  supreme  standard  of  the  moral  judg- 
ment— its  long  line  of  illustrious  examples — and 
its  revelation  also  to  the  inner  spirit  of  the  very 
will  of  God.16 

These  five  general  and  special  influences  then — 
heredity,  parents,  people,  law,  religion — are  re- 
sponsible for  the  education  of  conscience  in  the 
general  community,  the  nation,  the  world,  and 
also  for  those  splendid  cases,  now  and  then,  of 
specialized  conscience  that  are  the  moral  high- 
water  marks  of  the  race. 


The  Enlightenment  of  Conscience  31 

Conscience  becomes  specialized  in  splendid  in- 
dividualities, who  in  turn  become  the  great  edu- 
cators of  humanity  in  conscience.  They  are 
those  who  not  merely  accept  and  follow  the  social 
conscience  of  the  community,  but  rise  higher. 
They  see  more  deeply,  they  feel  more  strongly. 
They  see  the  imperfections  in  the  social  con- 
science, and  assert  a  better  conscience.  They  are 
the  moral  leaders  of  the  race  who  gradually  bring 
the  general  conscience  up  to  a  higher  level  and 
everywhere  inspire  more  individuals  with  nobler 
ideals. 

Confucius_and_JB:ucidha,  Socrates,  Plato,  Mar- 
cus Aurelius  and  Seneca,  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
t  Augustine  and,  later,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi  and 
Savonarola  and  Cromwell,  Luther  and  Wesley, 
are  among  the  great  heroes  of  conscience  in  the 
human  succession.17  They  are  men  whose  moral 
instincts  stand  up  above  the  masses  like  moun- 
tains above  the  plain.  But  above  them  all,  su- 
preme forever,  by  the  clearness  of  his  vision,  the 
unerringness  of  his  wisdom,  the  abounding  sym- 
pathy of  his  love,  and  the  eternal  revelation  of  his 
life  and  teachings,  stands  the  Teacher  of  Teach- 


32  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

ers,  the  Seer  of  Seers,  the  very  Power  and  the 
Wisdom  of  God. 

The  matchless  Sermon  on  the  Mount  has  more 
in  it  than  beautiful  precepts.  It  is  an  awful 
searcher  of  the  human  heart.  It  takes  the  formal 
morality  of  the  Ten  Commandments  and  intensi- 
fies it  a  thousand  fold.  It  seeks  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart.  Under  its  searchlight  hate 
becomes  murder  and  even  a  look  of  evil  is  a 
deed  of  guilt.  How  keen  becomes  conscience  in 
such  a  study  of  the  life.  This  gives  outward 
objective  morality  a  finer  rule  and  precept.  And 
how  much  greater  become  the  subjective  type,  the 
full  efflorescence  of  conscience  in  the  soul  after 
Jesus  has  strongly  touched  it  unto  finer  issues. 
What  an  education  to  conscience,  what  a  quick- 
ening, to  live  daily  in  His  fellowship  by  prayer 
and  meditation  and  loving  service.  This  opens  a 
new  world  to  conscience — tender,  full  of  sym- 
pathy and  pity,  strong  in  new  vision  and  new 
power.  The  supreme  standard  and  the  supreme 
inspiration  of  conscience  is  in  "that  Life  which  is 
the  light  of  men."18 


III. 

THE  AUTHORITY  OF  CONSCIENCE. 


O 


UR  inquiries  have  thus  led  us  into  a  study 
of  the  origin  and  nature  of  conscience. 
We  have  also  considered  something  of 
the  means  of  education  and  enlightenment  of  con- 
science. The  final  part  of  our  discussion  is  to 
determine,  as  nearly  as  we  can,  the  basis  of  the 
supremacy  of  conscience,  and  the  measure  of  its 
authority. 

We  may  say  for  one  thing  that_the_suprem.acy 
and  authority  of  conscience  lies  in  the  hereditary 
experience  of  the  race.  This  is  much.  It  has 
actual  validity  in  this.  It  finds  here  the  logical 
expression  of  what  is  wholesome,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  what  is  harmful.  It  is  the  reflex  of 
the  natural  order  of  moral  life — it  is  the  best  light 
that  humanity  has  gained  by  long  and  costly  ex- 
perience]    And  by  such  it  has  authority. 

Th^xc^i3cieii(^e^Tif~"the  community  originated 
first  with  individuals,  as  was  indicated.     Then 


34  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

these,  coming  together  in  social  relations,  devel- 
oped a  social  conscience.  It  was  loyalty  to  their 
instincts  for  self-preservation,  loyalty  to  each 
other,  loyalty  to  the  best  and  highest  in  them. 
The  social  conscience  to-day  is  in  one  sense 
what  the  community  believes^  to  be  best  for  its 
welfare,  what  is  right  to  be  done  for  the  best 
good  of  all  concerned.  Its  usages  and  conven- 
tions are  the  gradual  outgrowths  of  the  genera- 
tions and  centuries.  It  is  an  unwritten  code  of 
honor,  of  purity,  of  justice,  of  truth,  of  brother- 
hood. It  is  a  consensus,  a  traditional  heritage 
successively  developed.  Far  from  perfect,  it  is 
full  of  exceptions,  and  continually  violated.  Yet 
the  ideal,  the  noblest  conception,  has  authority  in 
human  hearts. 

But  we  may  further  say,  for  another  thing,  and 
supremely,  that  conscience  has  its  authority  by_ 
the  transcendent  sanction  of  the  divine — recog- 
nizable, unmistakable.  The  morality  and  holi- 
ness  among  men  which  they  evolved  from  their 
innermost  being  must  be  considered  fox-aU-of 
us  who  beHeveJn  Godf  not  as  merely  self-dfrived,.- 
but  as  a  derivation  frorrjuihe  essence,  of  Qod. 


The  Authority  of  Conscience  35 

"How  could  those  things  enter   into  the  heart  j 
of  man,  were  they  not  rooted  in  the  very  nature 
of  being?     Is  man  an  anomaly  in  the  universe?  | 
Is  he  merely  an  accidental  or  external  object  in 
it?     Are  not  he  himself  and  his  entire  essence 
and  being  grounded  in  God?"    (Paulsen,  p.  366.)- 
His  best  and  highest  are  therefore  surely  God- 
derived.  As  Hippocrates  said  in  the  ancient  days : 
"All  things  are  divine,  and  all  things  are  also 
human." 

This  divine  sanction  and  authority  is  recognized 
whether  we  take  conscience  as  the  final  clarified       \ 
reason  acting  in  moral  relations  or  in  the  more 
mystic  and  vital  view  of  conscience  as  a  progres- 
sive consciousness  of  God. 

But  the  later  and  fuller  view  seems  to  give  a 
more   vivid   reality  to   divine   authority   in   con- 
science.   Just  as  an  individual  conscience  may  bp^. 
a  man's  progressive  awakening,  a  man's  growing       J 
consciousness  of  the  will  of  God,    so  we  may       V 
define  public  conscience  as  the  awakening  of  a 
community  to  a  consciousness  of  the  divine  will.  | 
Of  course  we  might  define  it  in  lesser  ways.    The 
public   conscience   is   the    private   conscience   at 


36  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

work  on  public  affairs.  The  public  conscience  is 
the  collective  sum  of  the  individual  consciences 
in  the  community.  The  public  conscience  is  the 
average  of  the  private  conscience.  But  the  truest" 
and  fullest  definition  of  all  would  be:  public 
conscience  is  the  awakening  of  a  community  to 
a  consciousness  of  the  divine  will.  And  when  it 
realizes  this — that  it  stands  in  the  presence  of 

GnH— tWi^thprp    is    supreme    authority    for   con- 
science.19 

This  conception  also  gives  to  conscience  a 
more  absolute  supremacy  than  it  could  ever  have 
before.  Then  it  was  an  inexplainable  faculty  _ 
often  "fulminating  in  impotent  majesty"  above 
the  warring  impulses  in  man's  nature.  Now,  as 
it  rises  higher^  it  is  recognized  as  God's  pres^ 
ence.  With  conscience  we  are  in  the  awful  judg- 
ment  hall  of  the  Almighty.20 

There  are  three~~prevalent  distempers  in  the 
world  to-day — moral  nihilism,  moral  insanity  and 
moral  disintegration — each  a  defect  or  a  perver- 
sion of  conscience.  Moral  insanity  is  woefully 
prevalent.  There  are  various  degrees  of  this 
moral   degeneration.      Some   are   merely   hard- 


'     The  Authority  of  Conscience  37 

hearted,  unscrupulous  and  dishonest.  Some  are 
merely  devoid  of  conscience  and  remorse.  Some 
are  abnormal  in  their  impulses.  The  baser  and 
poorer  sort  fill  our  workhouses,  insane  asylums 
and  jails.  Always  a  lark  nf  rotisrienre  means 
finally  utter  degeneration  and  destruction.  This 
evil  thus  helps  to  correct  itself. 

But  the  more  difficult  is  moral  nihilism.  When 
a  man  deliberately  says,  "Evil,  be  thou  my  good/' 
he  signs  a  contract  with  darkness  and  death.  A 
famous  Russian  had  as  his  motto,  "I  believe  noth- 
ing, I  fear  nothing,  I  love  nothing."  That  was 
equally  a  contract  with  bitterness,  loneliness,  cyn- 
icism and  death.  These  are  sinning  against  the 
light;  they  are  stultifying  conscience.  They  are 
scorning  the  authority  of  conscience  to  their  own 
destruction. 

Moral  disintegration  is  the  wilful  division  of 
morality  into  public  and  private  codes.  The 
morality  of  the  present  day  has  been  largely  and 
woefully  vitiated  by  corporate  irresponsibility. 
Corporations  have  no  souls.  As  soon  as  men  can 
shirk  responsibility  by  a  corporation,  they  do 
things  that  as  individuals  they  would  not  think  of 


A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

doing.21  "The  voice  of  conscience,"  as  one  has 
recently  said,  "is  often  keen,  clear  and  imperative 
in  certain  regions  of  our  lives  and  conduct;  and 
muffled,  confused  and  all  but  silent  in  certain 
other  realms.  We  have  had  appalling  revela- 
tions in  recent  years  in  commercial  and  political 
iniquity  and  civic  unrighteousness.  Often  good 
men  were  involved.  What  is  the  matter?  Is  it 
not  because  they  have  a  hopeless  cleavage,  a 
bridgeless  gulf  between  their  private  morality 
and  their  business  methods?  Bureaus  may  in- 
vestigate, Congress  and  legislatures  pass  laws, 
courts  interpret  and  enforce  them,  but  it  is  use- 
less. What  we  need  is  the  coordination  of  our 
ethical  instincts,  the  bringing  up  of  our  standards 
in  all  the  various  regions  of  our  life  and  con- 
duct to  the  same  high  level  of  the  moral  ideal: 
in  other  words,  we  need  the  unification  and  inte- 
gration of  what  in  so  many  lives  in  our  whole 
community  is  now  a  divided  and  disintegrated 
conscience."  Have  we  enough  strength  and  man- 
hood in  us  to  be  able  to  bridge  the  gulf  and  to 
reinstate  conscience  in  its  integrity  in  the  whole 
life  of  the  people — individual,    corporate,   com- 


The  Authority  of  Conscience  39 

mercial?  Have  we  inherent  force  and  vitality 
enough  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  age? 

We  must  recognize  the  fact  that  science  and 
our  colleges  have  a  real  and  practical  function  in 
preserving  and  developing  conscience.  As  Prof. 
Henry  Sidgwick  says,  "Though  the  imperfection 
that  we  find  in  all  the  actual  conditions  of  human 
existence  is  ultimately  found  even  in  morality 
itself,  still  practically  we  are  to  be  much  less 
concerned  with  correcting  and  improving  than  we 
are  with  realizing  and  enforcing  it.  .  .  .  We 
must  repudiate  the  temper  of  rebellion  against 
established  morality We  must  contem- 
plate it  with  reverence  and  wonder,  as  a  marvel- 
ous product  of  nature,  the  result  of  long  cen- 
turies of  growth.  .  .  .  No  politicians  or 
philosophers  could  create  it.  Without  it  the 
harder  and  coarser  machinery  of  positive  law 
could  not  be  permanently  maintained,  and  the  life 
of  man  would  become,  as  Hobbes  forcibly  ex- 
presses it,  'solitary,  poor,  brutish  and  short.'  " 
(Quoted  by  Paulsen,  p.  368.) 

But  finally  and  supremely,  it  is  the  work  of 
religion  and  the  churches  to  assert  the  authority 


40  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

of  conscience  in  all  life  and  to  arouse  society  in 
all  its  phases  and  relations  to  a  quickened  con- 
sciousness of  God.  j[What  is  demanded  to-day, 
as  in  all  time,  as  its  imperial  right  by  conscience, 
is  obedience — instant,  unquestioning  obedience. 
Argument  is  useless  and  worthless  when  con- 
science is  concerned.  The  instinct,  the  intuition 
is  truer  than  our  reasoning.  We  must  obey  what 
we  feel  and  know  is  right.  Mistakes  may  be 
made,  but  nevertheless  we  cannot  afford  to  dis- 
obey the  dictates  of  conscience. 

We  do  not  obey  the  laws  of  God  merely  be- 
cause they  are  the  arbitrary  laws  of  a  sovereign, 
but  because  they  are  right.  And  they  are  right 
not  merely  because  they  are  God's  laws,  but 
because  God  is  right.  He  is  the  source  of  right. 
Right  is  good,  ultimately  good,  and  good  is  God. 
Right  is  not  sovereign  above  God,  but  is  His  very 
nature.  Right  means  for  us — that  which  is 
really  best  for  our  welfare  and  fullest  self-realiza- 
tion. We  ate  discovering  gradually  what  these 
laws  are — physical  and  spiritual.  They  are  God's 
laws — they  are  right — they  are  His  inherent  life 
and  law  in  us.    So  as  we  obey  the  right,  we  obey 


The  Authority  of  Conscience  41 

God.  It  is  the  same  with  conscience.  Con- 
science is  our  highest  light  on  the  right.  It  is 
in  its  deepest  reaches,  the  revelation  of  the  divine 
will,  the  revealing  presence  of  God  Himself. 
When  we  obey  conscience  we  follow  our  highest 
light.     We  obeyjSod. 

We  need  to-day  not  so  much  a  revival  of  con- 
science, but  a  reassertion  of  conscience,  a  loyalty 
to  the  authority  of  conscience,  a  revival  of  con- 
scientiousness— of  immediate  and  absolute  obedi- 
ence to  conscience.  I  hold,  with  Milton,  for  the 
"companionship  with  the  sturdy  champion,  con- 
science." 

The  assertion  of  the  individual  conscience  and 
independence  in  following  this  conscience,  is  the 
supreme  need.  We  must  pay  no  attention  to 
the  multitude  and  its  standards,  but  follow  our^X 
own  conscience  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  light.  ' 
The  earnest,  fearless  fight  for  conscience  and 
God  will  mean  opposition.  It  will  often  mean 
suffering.  It  will  sometimes  mean  crucifixion 
and  death.  But  it  is  a  fight  for  God,  and  in 
the  end  it  will  mean  victory.  This  is  the  pur- 
port of  the  Christian  ethics  of  conscience. 


42  A  Modern  Study  of  Conscience 

The  supreme  vision  of  conscience  comes  to  us 
in  the  divine  drama  of  Galilee  and  the  awful 
tragedy  in  Golgotha.  This  is  the  final  type  of 
the  dramatic  climaxes  of  the  world's  history. 
"The  real  heroes  of  mankind  fight  the  battle  of 
conscience.  They  rebel  against  conventional  val- 
ues, against  the  ideals  that  have  become  useless 
and  false,  against  sham  and  falsehood,  against 
the  salt  that  has  lost  its  savor.  They  preach 
new  truths,  point  out  new  aims  and  new  ideals, 
and  instil  new  life  into  the  soul  and  raise  it  to  a 
higher  plane."  (See  Paulsen,  p.  370.)  The  Mas- 
ter of  us  all  fought  such  a  fight,  and  He  is  for- 
ever the  Captain  of  all  those  who  are  thirsting 
after  and  battling  for  the  kingdom  of  God — for 
truth  and  justice,  strength  and  spirituality,  love 
and  freedom ! 

"God  give  us  men;  for  times  like  these  demand 

Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  ready  hand. 

Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy; 

Men  who  possess  opinions-  and  a  will; 

Men  who  have  honor,  men  who  will  not  lie; 

Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue, 

And  down  his  treacherous  flatteries  and  wiles; 

Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  clouds 


The  Authority  of  Conscience  43 

In  public  duty  and  in  private  life, 
For  while  the  rabble,  with  their  thumb-worn  creeds, 
Their  large  professions  and  their  little  deeds, 
Mingle  in  selfish  strife,  lo!  freedom  weeps. 
Wrong  rules  the  land,  and  waiting  justice  sleeps." 
God  give  us  men!    This  is  the  crying  need, 
Men  of  strong  conscience,  men  of  valiant  deed. 
Men  who  see  God,  and  dare  to  do  the  right! 
God  give  us  men!   Then  comes  the  new  day's  light! 


NOTES. 


NOTES. 

Note  i,  page  i. 
Coleridge,    "The   Friend,"    Miscellany  the   First,   Es- 


say IV. 

Note  2,  page  3. 
Mark  Hopkins,  "The  Law  of  Love  and  the  Love  of 
Law." 

Note  3,  page  4. 
Bishop  Butler,  Diss.  II. 

Note  4,  page  5. 

This  subject  of  conscience  is  vital,  fundamental  and 
practical.  It  is  touching  the  springs  of  all  life.  It  is 
getting  to  the  motives  of  action  and  the  base  of  being. 
It  is  feeling  the  nerve  not  only  of  individual  life  and 
personal  responsibility,  but  also  has  its  real  touch  upon 
every  phase  of  human  life  and  its  larger  vision  into 
the  unfolding  future. 

We  see  at  once  strange  and  difficult  cases  of  con- 
science presenting  themselves  to  us  in  the  ordinary 
problems  of  every-day  life.  It  is  undoubtedly  wrong 
to  steal  a  neighbor's  property,  but  what  is  that  man 
doing  who  lends  him  money  when  he  is  in  trouble  and 
then  by  a  skilful  operation  gets  hold  of  the  property  in 
a  lawful  way.  Or  what  if  a  banker  or  broker  is  in 
possession  of  a  bit  of  news  that  others  have  not  yet 
heard  and  so  manipulates  the  market  for  his  own 
benefit?  He  gains  a  million,  others  lose.  Where  is 
conscience    in    this?      Is    conscience    to    be    eliminated 


48  Notes 

when  we  say:  Business  is  business.  Or  what  if  one 
is  a  director  in  a  steamboat  company  and  by  criminal 
negligence  of  the  directors,  a  boat  is  mismanaged  and 
burned  and  a  thousand  lives  lost?  Is  one  twinge  of 
conscience  sufficient  to  retrieve  the  damage  and  re- 
lieve the  distressed  and  bereaved?  What  if  a  railroad 
company  grants  a  secret  rebate  to  one  large  shipper 
over  its  lines  to  the  manifest  disadvantage  or  utter 
annihilation  of  other  rival  shippers,  can  public  con- 
science and  the  law  take  no  cognizance  of  it?  What  if 
great  corporations  manipulate  legislation  for  their  own 
benefit  by  the  use  of  great  sums  of  money?  And  if 
they  use  their  stockholders'  money  in  improper  and 
wasteful  ways?  Is  there  no  conscience  or  law  against 
these  things?  What  if  an  official  or  agent  of  an  im- 
mense company,  in  violation  of  the  rules  of  his  cor- 
poration, shows  partiality  to  an  insurer  and  receives 
compensation  for  his  act.  That  is  theft.  What  if  he 
does  the  same  thing  to  please  a  friend  and  receives 
no  compensation?    Is  conscience  satisfied? 

What  if  a  young  man  promises  a  young  woman  that 
he  will  marry  her.  Afterwards  he  sees  that  he  was  not 
himself  at  the  time  and  that  if  he  does  marry  her  it 
will  mean  misery  for  both  of  them.  Must  he  keep  his 
word?  What  does  conscience  say?  Take  many  an 
honest  woman.  She  buys  where  she  can  get  her  goods 
cheapest.  She  literally  loves  a  bargain  counter.  She 
does  not  think  of  the  pitiable  conditions  under  which 
these  goods  must  be  produced  to  make  them  so  cheap. 
Has  conscience  no  part  here?  Take  a  politician  who 
differs  from  his  party  on  some  big  question.  Must  he 
leave  his  party  or  stifle  his  conscience  or  fight  it  out 
in  his  party,  standing  alone?    Or  an  ecclesiastic  or  re- 


Notes  49 

ligious  leader.  He  may  differ  from  his  church  on 
some  important  question.  Must  he  leave  his  church, 
or  keep  silence?  What  course  does  conscience  dictate? 
What  does  honest  conscience  require  ?  Or  take  a  soldier. 
The  first  duty  of  a  soldier  is  obedience,  unconditional 
obedience,  in  the  service.  The  slightest  infringement  is 
severely  punished.  The  existence  and  worth  of  mili- 
tary life  depends  upon  absolute  and  instant  obedience. 
And  yet  there  come  times  of  emergency  when  soldiers 
have  disobeyed  orders  and  been  guiltless.  Officers  have 
disobeyed  their  superiors  and  yet  in  the  end  been  com- 
mended. There  are  exceptions  to  all  rules.  Shall  con- 
science decide  ?  Obedience  is  the  rule  and  must  be  main- 
tained. A  mistaken  disobedience  will  be  severely  han- 
dled. What  shall  be  the  test?  Is  a  lie  ever  justifiable — 
for  instance,  in  war  or  with  the  sick?  It  is  a  matter 
of  common  occurrence.  Is  wrong  ever  permissible  that 
good  may  come? 

These  are  questions  of  conscience.  Professor  Paul- 
sen discusses  many  of  these  in  his  "Ethics,"  as  do 
others.     They  are  every-day,  vital,  important  questions. 

We  may  notice  that  some  men  are  conscientious  in 
spots.  Perhaps  we  all  are.  A  gentleman,  for  instance, 
finds  a  purse  in  the  street.  A  card  within  gives  him  the 
address  of  the  owner.  Instantly  he  sets  about  to  return 
that  purse  to  the  owner.  His  conscience  forbids  him 
to  keep  it.  But  now,  notice.  That  gentleman  when  he 
finds  the  purse  is  on  his  way  to  the  stock  exchange, 
where,  by  an  adroit  handling  of  matters,  by  a  bluff  and 
a  trick,  he  deprives  a  fellow-speculator  of  his  entire 
fortune,  without  the  slightest  feeling  of  compunction. 

There  are  some  individuals — few,  I  would  hope — 
whose  consciences  are  so  elastic  or  deficient  that  they 


50  Notes 

come  to  believe  that  everything  is  right  that  can  be 
done  without  danger  of  falling  into  the  hands  of  the 
police. 

There  may  be  even  some  who  assert  that  conscience 
is  nothing  but  a  clever  invention  of  unscrupulous  priests 
to  enslave  the  souls  of  men. 

Is  there  any  one  law  by  which  all  these  subtle  and 
difficult  questions  can  be  solved?  Is  conscience  a  full 
and  sufficient  judge?  Is  it  the  ultimate  tribunal?  Is  it 
any  man's  conscience  to  which  we  appeal?  Do  not 
even  consciences  differ  in  their  sensitiveness  and  judg- 
ments and  deliverances?  Can  conscience  by  itself  be 
trusted,  or  does  it  need  some  outward  law  and  standard  ? 

If  conscience  be  the  judge,  is  it  the  natural,  intuitive, 
unsophisticated  conscience  to  which  we  appeal,  or  the 
well  trained,  educated,  enlightened  conscience? 

These  are  important  questions. 

Note  5,  page  7. 

For  a  brief,  but  clear,  account  of  Plato's  doctrine  of 

the  soul,   see   Schwegler's   "History  of   Philosophy,"  p. 

114;  for  the  Platonic  ethics,  ibid.,  p.  116. 

Note  6,  page  8. 

Conscience  and  the  problems  of  conscience  are  as  old 
as  humanity.  The  Old  Testament,  however,  does  not 
mention  the  word  conscience.  What  we  call  conscience, 
it  included  in  the  comprehensive  word  "heart,"  which 
for  the  Old  Testament  days  usually  meant  affection, 
reason  and  conscience  combined. 

Strangely  enough,  the  Gospels  never  used  the  word 
conscience.  They  followed  the  Old  Testament  usage 
and   spoke   of  the   heart,  but  their   appeals   were  con- 


Notes  51 

stantly  to  what  we  would  call  conscience.  But  imme- 
diately at  the  beginning  of  apostolic  teaching,  when  the 
Gospel  came  into  contact  with  Greek  thought  and  the 
finer  analyses  and  discriminations  of  Greek  definition, 
the  apostles  began  to  use  the  word  conscience,  and  it 
is  used  by  them  thirty-two  times  in  the  New  Testament 
in  such  phrases  as  "a  conscience  void  of  offense,"  do 
so  and  so  "for  conscience  sake."  So  that  conscience 
early  became  the  accepted  New  Testament  word  for 
that  something  within  us  that  tells  us  to  do  thus  and 
so,  that  judges  for  us  between  right  and  wrong,  and  is 
either  our  defender  or  our  accuser. 

As  the  church  went  on  through  the  centuries  and  be- 
came more  and  more  entangled  in  alliance  with  the 
state,  and  in  compromise  with  pagan  ceremonies  and 
customs,  there  grew  up  such  a  condition  of  church 
affairs,  especially  in  medieval  times,  that  the  priest  and 
the  ecclesiastical  power  assumed  to  be  the  conscience 
for  all  Christians.  These  churchly  officers  took  their 
place  between  a  man  and  his  God,  and  undertook  to 
lord  it  over  his  conscience. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  was  really  nothing  more 
or  less  than  a  new  assertion  of  the  rights  of  conscience. 
In  the  storm  of  the  Reformation  the  medieval  churchly 
barriers  between  a  man  and  his  God  were  fiercely  swept 
away  in  one  great  wave  of  righteous  wrath.  And  man 
again  stood  out  in  his  conscience  rights,  as  a  man  before 
God,  with  individual  responsibility  and  infinite  privi- 
lege. 

Note  7,  page  15. 
Summarized  thus  from  Prof.   T.   H.   Green  by  Rev. 
T.  B.  Kilpatrick,  of  Aberdeen. 


52  Notes 

Note  8,  page  15. 
Prof.  Henry  Sidgwick,  in  his  "History  of  Ethics" 
(p.  259),  very  briefly  and  inadequately  touches  on  these 
new  views  of  Prof.  T.  H.  Green's  "Prolegomena  of 
Ethics."  There  is  much  more  of  fruitfulness,  however, 
in  these  transcendental  ethics  than  Professor  Sidgwick 
would  lead  us  to  see  in  his  summary  of  the  position. 

Note  9,  page  17. 
The  several  quotations  in  this  address  from  Dr.  Fried- 
rich  Paulsen,  Profesor  of  Philosophy  in  the  University 
of  Berlin,  are  from  his  "System  of  Ethics,"  translation 
from  the  second  German  edition,  Scribner's,  1903. 

Note  10,  page  19. 
Quoted  by  Wuttke,  "Christian  Ethics,"  Vol.  II,  p.  107, 
Ed.  1861. 

Note  11,  page  19. 
Quoted  by  Hickok,  "Moral  Science,"  p.  29. 

Note  12,  page  25. 
Wuttke's  "Christian  Ethics,"  Vol.  II,  p.  99ft*,  Ed.  1861. 

Note  13,  page  26. 
Readers  of  the  German  theologians  Ritschel  and  Har- 
nack,  or  the  English  Principal  Fairbairn,  or  the  Amer- 
ican Dr.  Gordon,  will  remember  that  all  through  their 
writings  are  the  phrases  "the  consciousness  of  Christ." 
They  say,  "We  must  come  back  to  the  consciousness  of 
Christ  for  spiritual  knowledge  and  spiritual  standards." 
Just  what  they  mean  by  the  consciousness  of  Christ 
I  think  may  be  explained  by  what  we  have  said  of  con- 


Notes  53 

science  as  consciousness  of  God.  What  was  Christ's 
conscience?  What  was  Christ's  conscience  but  His 
consciousness  of  God — His  knowledge  of  God's  will,  His 
sensitive  and  instant  appreciation  of  God's  wishes. 

Note  14,  page  26. 
James'  "Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  231. 

Note  15,  page  28. 
"There  is  a  tremendously  uneducated  or  miseducated 
conscience  in  this  country  to-day,"  said  Dr.  Washington 
Gladden  in  a  recent  address.  "People  in  good  society, 
people  who  are  members  of  our  churches,  people  who 
are  known  as  our  leading  citizens,  are  doing  things  which 
are  horribly  wrong,  and  neither  do  their  own  con- 
science seem  to  protest,  nor  is  there  any  moral  sense 
in  the  community  which  adequately  disapproves  their 
wrong-doing.  The  things  which  have  been  going  on 
of  late  can  only  be  explained  upon  the  theory  of  a 
general  lapse  in  conscience,  in  financial  circles  and  in 
political  circles,  in  society  and,  most  deplorable  of  all, 
in  the  church  itself.  The  one  thing  this  country  needs 
most  to-day  is  not  better  laws,  nor  better  methods  of 
administration,  but  a  clearing  up  and  toning  up  of  the 
conscience  of  its  citizens." 

Note  16,  page  30. 
One  or  two  problems  of  conscience  may  show  how 
this  new  thought  explains  them.  We  are  puzzled  at 
times  by  the  divergence  in  the  deliverances  of  con- 
science in  different  individuals,  or  in  different  eras,  or 
between   different   nations    or   religions.     The    Hindoo 


54  Notes 

mother,  for  instance,  obeying  as  she  thinks  her  con- 
science, throws  her  child  into  the  Ganges.  We,  with  our 
conscience,  revolt  at  such  a  thing.  The  ancient  Jews, 
in  their  warfare,  were  cruel  and  vindictive  seemingly 
with  all  good  conscience.  Our  conscience  recoils  at 
such  deeds.  What  is  the  explanation?  Is  it  not  found 
in  this  conception  of  conscience  as  progressive  con- 
sciousness of  God?  The  conscience  of  the  early  races 
was  only  partially  awakened.  They  had  a  glimpse  of 
God  in  conscience,  resulting  in  worship,  and  devotion, 
and  in  willing  and  oftentimes  sublime  sacrifice,  but  not 
enough  to  direct  all  their  acts  of  service  or  sacrifice 
aright.  A  growing  conscience  corrects  these  earlier  mis- 
takes  of  the  race. 

There  must  also  come  into  this  explanation  the  fact 
of  deterioration  of  conscience  by  individuals  or  nations 
through  disobedience.  How  much  clear  and  growing 
conscience  could  be  expected  in  the  ancient  Jews  who 
were  so  persistently  disobedient,  in  the  midst  of  their 
spasmodic  obedience. 

What  of  the  case  of  St.  Paul  before  and  after  con- 
version, to  take  another  instance?  Before  his  conversion 
he  was  persecuting  the  Christians  and  thinking  that  he 
was  doing  God's  service.  His  conscience  approved. 
His  conversion  was  a  new  discovery  of  God  through 
the  vision  of  Christ,  on  the  Damascus  road.  The  new 
and  enlarged  consciousness  absolutely  changed  and 
quickened  his  conscience  to  the  truth  and  right. 

Take  still  another  phase.  We  are  also  puzzled  at 
times  by  the  seeming  conflict  of  duties  that  conscience 
occasionally  provokes.  Analyze  these  cases  of  con- 
science, and  it  will  be  seen  that  conscience  does  not 
give  conflicting  deliverances,  but  it  is  really  conscience 


Notes  55 

and  instinct,  or  conscience  and  desire  that  are  in  con- 
flict. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  has  given  a  historic  instance  in  the 
story  of  Jeanie  Deans  in  "The  Heart  of  Midlothian." 
Shall  she  tell  a  falsehood  in  order  to  save  her  sister's 
life?  It  is  a  conflict  between  truth  and  affection.  She 
obeys  what  she  believes  is  conscience  and  goes  forth 
in  loving  and  noblest  sacrifice.  The  solution  for  us  in 
all  such  cases  is  to  obey  what  we  feel  is  nearest  God. 

Note  17,  page  31. 
The  great  drama  of  "Faust,"  into  which  Goethe  put 
his  life,  is  in  a  sense  a  study  of  conscience,  (as  Paulsen 
notes,  "Ethics,"  p.  372).  Faust,  in  the  first  part  of  the 
drama  shows  how,  having  exhausted  learning  and  tiring 
of  study,  the  philosopher  gradually  emancipates  himself 
from  the  customs  and  beliefs  of  the  people,  stultifies  con- 
science, and  gives  himself  up  to  pleasure  and  the  devil. 
He  destroys  the  peace  of  a  family,  sacrifices  the  happi- 
ness of  an  innocent  and  lovable  girl;  through  him 
Gretchen  murders  her  mother,  her  brother  and  her 
child.  He  forsakes  her  and  joins  the  cavalcade  that 
moves  upon  the  witch-drama  of  the  Blockberg,  the  false 
and  polite  delusions  of  life.  The  loss  of  conscience 
means  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  deeper  and  deeper 
he  goes  into  the  mire.  In  the  second  part  of  the  drama, 
not  often  read,  Goethe  vainly  endeavors  to  show  how 
Faust  is  redeemed  by  a  renewal  of  conscience  through 
subjecting  himself  again  to  measure  and  law.  But 
we  tire  of  the  curious  hydraulic  enterprises  of  the  old 
man.  It  may  be  service,  but  there  is  not  enough  suf- 
fering and  struggle  in  it.  His  conscience  has  not  shown 
the  depth  of  remorse  that  we  believe  the  real  tragedy 
of  sin  in  his  life  demands. 


56  Notes 

Note  18,  page  32. 
"They  only  the  victory  win 
Who  have  fought  the  good  fight  and  have  vanquished 

the  demon  that  tempts  us  within; 
Who  have  held  to  their  faith  unseduced  by  the  prize 

that  the  world  holds  on  high; 
Who  have  dared  for  a  high  cause  to  suffer,  resist,  fight — 

if  needs  be,  to  die. 
Speak,  history,  who  are  life's  victors?    Unroll  thy  long 

annals,  and  say — 
Are  they  those  whom  the  world  called  the  victors,  who 

won  the  success  of  a  day? 
The    martyrs    or    Nero?      The    Spartans    who    fell    at 

Thermopylae's  tryst,        ♦ 
Or  the  Persians  and  Xerxes?    His  judges,  or  Socrates? 

Pilate,  or  Christ  ?" 

W.  W.  Story  in  "Io  Victis." 


Note  19,  page  36. 
With  this  larger  conception  of  conscience  before  us, 
we  may  examine  some  of  the  New  Testament  references 
concerning  conscience,  and  see  their  full  and  practical 
application.  The  New  Testament  is  very  explicit  and 
emphatic  in  applying  conscience  to  all  the  duties  of  life. 
Every  phase  of  life  is  brought  within  its  sweep  and  is 
made  absolutely  subject  to  its  majestic  arbitrament. 
The  first  mention  of  conscience  in  the  New  Testament 
is  in  John's  Gospel  in  the  incident  of  the  woman  taken 
in  sin.  Her  accusers,  as  the  Gospel  reads,  "being  con- 
victed by  their  own  conscience,  went  out  one  by  one." 
The  second  mention  is  in  St.  Paul's  letter  to  the  Romans 
(2:15),   when  he   speaks   of  the   Gentiles,   "not  havin* 


Notes  57 

the  Mosaic  law,  yet  having  a  law  written  in  their  hearts, 
their  conscience  also  bearing  witness  and  their  thoughts 
the  meanwhile  accusing  or  excusing  one  another."  Still, 
again,  in  the  letters  to  the  Corinthians  (10:  25),  St.  Paul 
says:  "Whatsoever  is  set  before  you,  eat,  asking  no 
questions  for  conscience  sake,  .  .  .  for  why  is  my 
liberty  judged  of  another  man's  conscience."  Again, 
in  the  Acts  (24:  16),  St.  Paul  says:  "I  exercise  myself 
to  have  always  a  conscience  void  of  offense  toward  God 
and  man."  And,  again,  he  says  (2  Cor.  4:1,  2)  :  "By 
manifestation  of  the  truth  we  commend  ourselves  to 
every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God."  These 
and  many  other  similar  instances  in  Gospels  and  epistles 
show  the  usage  of  the  New  Testament. 

Note  20,  page  36. 
I  sat  alone  with  my  conscience 

In  a  place  where  time  had  ceased 
And  we  talked  of  my  former  living 

In  the   land  where  the  years  increased; 
And  I  felt  I  should  have  to  answer 

The  question  it  put  to  me, 
And  to  face  the  answer  and  question 

Throughout  all  eternity. 

The  ghosts  of  forgotten  actions 

Came  floating  before  my  sight, 
And  things  that  I  thought  were  dead  things 

Were  alive  with  a  terrible  might. 
And  I  thought  of  my  former  living 

And    the    Judgment    Day    to    be, 
But  sitting  alone  with  my  conscience 

Seemed  judgment  enough  for  me. 


58  Notes 

Then  I  woke  from  my  timely  dreaming, 

And  the  vision  passed  away, 
And  I  knew  the  far-away  warning 

Was  a  warning  of  yesterday. 
Then  I  felt  that  the  future  was  present, 

And  the  present  would  never  go  by, 
For  it  was  but  the  thought  of  my  past  life 

Grown  into  eternity. 


So  I  sit  alone  with  my  conscience, 

In  the  place  where  the  years  increase, 
And  I  try  to  remember  the  future 

In  the  land  where  time  shall  cease. 
And  I  know  of  the  future  judgment 

Whatever  it  all  may  be, 
Yet  to  sit  alone  with  my  conscience 

Will  be  judgment  enough  for  me. 


Note  21,  page  38. 
The  individual  responsibility  for  corporate  action  must 
also  be  emphasized.  "Corporations,"  as  a  recent  ethical 
writer  puts  it,  "have  almost  unlimited  power  to  inflict 
injustice  and  suffering,  and  wherever  there  is  injustice 
and  suffering,  somebody  is  to  blame  for  it.  Ordinarily 
the  stockholders  will  shelter  themselves  behind  the  cor- 
poration; but  what  is  everybody's  business  is  nobody's 
business,  and  the  injustice  goes  on.  If  a  corporation 
has  no  conscience,  every  officer  of  the  corporation  has, 
and  it  is  his  business  to  see  to  it  that  nothing  is  done 
that  his  individual  conscience  could  not  sanction.  The 
officers  are  directly  responsible  for  the  management  of 


Notes  59 

the  affairs.  If  these  are  conducted  in  such  a  way 
that  an  officer's  conscience  cannot  approve  of  them,  then 
let  him  protest,  and  if  that  does  not  do  any  good,  then 
let  him  get  out  of  it  and  stay  not  upon  the  order  of  his 
going."  Not  only  must  we  emphasize  individual  re- 
sponsibility for  corporate  action,  but  also  we  must  assert 
one  standard  for  both  corporate  and  private  morality. 


t 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

Renewed  books  are  wbjecttoimmrih,,  recall. 


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.General  Library 

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YB  29569 


